White House SocialGov Summit Aims to Improve Open Data Innovation

Posted by Justin Herman , Social Media Manager on August 19, 2014

More than 100 digital engagement and open data managers from across government met with leaders in the private sector startup community recently at the White House for a summit on integrating our digital services with public participation to create more opportunities for innovation and tackle tougher challenges.

The SocialGov Summit on Open Data Innovation was organized by the 700-member SocialGov Community and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, launching a new inter-community initiative to apply combined open data, digital engagement, and innovative technologies to fields ranging from the Internet of Things and emergency management to modernization of the regulatory process.

The format of the event demonstrated the roles of social media in government itself:

Listening to the experiences and insights of innovators in the Startup and Tech Communities

Sharing existing and needed resources for advancing open data and innovative tech programs

Collaborating on tailored open data programs and events that deliver better results.

Representatives from The Case Foundation, WeWork, General Assembly, ThinkUp and Fosterly opened the session with a discussion on the unique needs of their communities, and how government managers can listen better to design public/private partnerships that encourage sustainable innovation.

Participants then explored the tools and resources currently available to our communities, with discussions led by representatives from Reddit, Hootsuite, Facebook and the new 18F program.

The event concluded with collaborative brainstorming on how to best integrate together the digital engagement and open data communities for improved performance of our programs. A shared Hackpad document, which anyone may contribute to, collected the shared notes, questions, and ideas of more than a dozen of the participants.

For more information on GSA’s SocialGov program and how you can be part of the effort to improve open data programs with public participation and digital engagement, please email justin.herman@gsa.gov.